Cleaners that utilize scraper blades to remove debris and other materials from conveyor belts are known. Conveyor belts often include metallic splices extending across the belt that run past the scraper blades during conveyor belt operations. The scraper blades are typically biased into engagement with the belt to allow them to resiliently shift away from the belt when surface irregularities on the belt are encountered such as due to the aforementioned metallic splices.
Generally, the goal of keeping each scraper blade in substantially constant contact with the belt to improve cleaning thereof is in competition with the need to allow the blade to shift away from the belt to avoid taking the full brunt of impacts with metallic splices and the like which can cause damage to both the scraper blade and the metallic splice. In heavier duty applications, this problem can be exacerbated by the use of thicker, more robust fasteners of the metallic splice which create higher impact loads on the scraper blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,093,706 discloses a prior conveyor belt cleaner having a spring plate that is mounted to an angle bracket of a pole extending across the conveyor belt. The cleaner has a resilient pad under the spring plate to maintain a scraper blade supported by the spring plate engaged against the conveyor belt with a minimum of chatter. A pair of bolts extend through openings in the spring plate, through the resilient pad, and engage the angle bracket to secure the spring plate to the angle bracket. When a metallic splice strikes the scraper blade, the spring plate absorbs impacts transmitted from the scraper blade. A relatively thick spring plate may be used to increase the durability of the spring plate. However, this increases rigidity of the spring plate and increases the inertia of the spring plate and scraper blade; both of which make it more difficult for the scraper blade to shift out of the way of the conveyor belt metallic splices.